W
Injustice: The Social Bases of
Obedience and Revolt
by Barrington Moore, Jr.
(Pantheon;.540 pp: $17.50)
Joseph Amato
Because this is an important work it is
unfortunate that it is not more readable.
Throughout its five hundred pages one
encounters whole sections that ought to
have been mere paragraphs. More im-
portant, as justifiable as is Moores
tripartite division of the work (it moves
from theory to example, and from ex-
ample back to theory), the suspicion
will persist that he has written two
works instead of one. that he has tried to
build a cathedral where a modest chapel
would have served. Readers acquainted
with Moores past writings will wish he
had modeled Injustice along the more
economical lines of Rejecrions on the
Cause of Hirnian Misery (1972) rather
than on his huge near-classic Social
Origins o/ Dictatorship and Democra-
cy, Lord and Peasant in the Making of
the Modern World (1966). Thcsc stylis-
tic criticisms are not meant to discour-
age anyone from reading Injustice but,
rather, to prepare the reader for the
long but worthwhile ordeal ahead.
If a choice faces all sensitive twen-
tieth-century thinkers between tragic
optimism and courageous pessi-
mism, Moore chooses the latter. He
believes that limits and tragedy are as
real to the human condition as happi-
ness and the promise of progress. This
spirit shapes his response to the ques-
tion: Why do people so often put u p
with being victims of their society and
why, at other times, do they try to do
something about it?
Moore rejects the either-or choice
between nature and culture. Man, he
believes, does have basic psychological
and material needs that enter into every
human context and i n large measure
determine his happiness and misery. At
the same time, the givens of human
nature are mediated by culture and are
shaped by three fundamental realities
that characterize every society: authori-
ry. division of labor, and the allocation
of goods and services.
Authority. unless it rests on terror,
must be based on a sense of mutual obli-
erty, and resentment and sanctions
against the lazy, the do-nothing, and the
faineanr. The distribution of goods and
services, the third element of the social
order, is associated w i t h peoples
varying sense of equality and fairness.
The sense of fairness indicts all those
who take without giving-the parasites,
the exploiters, the bloodsuckers, the
moochers-and all those who have
riches beyond their own need but dont
gation. This sense emerges most vividly share them-the nonmagnanimous rich,
and passionately at such times as au- the hoarders, the stingy.
thority is called into question. Analo- Having prepared us to concede that
gous to the relation between child and for rebellion, as for war, there are
parent, societys authority is based upon always a thousand reasons at hand,
an implicit exchange of security for Moore raises a question that he con-
obedience. The division of labor, to take sciously formulates in opposition to the
Moores second term, can be achieved favored question of the late 1960s and
by sheer compulsion, as is the case so early 1970s. Instead of asking, as was
often in modern predatory, national so- asked then, Why do people revolt?
cieties; or it can rest, as is nearly always Moore asks. Why do people so often
the case in more primitive societies, submit to oppression and degradation?
upon consensus and allocation by tradi- Conceding that the acceptance of a
tion. Always at play in the discussion of certain amount of suffering is a condi-
justice is a preference for personal prop- tion of life, Moore looks to the extreme
PUBLIC (?CE EDUCATIONFUND
Box 5769,Washington,D.C.20014
8
ow
THIRD INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN
POLITICAL CONFERENCE
August 24 27,1979-
Conference Theme:
JUSTICE FOR ALL: THE RIGHT OF
POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
Guest Speakers:
Michael Novak: Columnist, social critic,
scholar. and author of The Rise of the Un-
meltable Ethnics.
Topic: Pluralism and Political Practice: Is
There Justice for Groups In America?
John Perkins: Voice of Calvary Ministries,
Jackson, Mississippi.
Robert Martin: Makah Indian Nation, Neah
Bay, Washington.
Tom Skinner: President - Tom Skinner
Associates
And other speakers from North America and
other parls of the world.
Mlchael Novak
For more information write:
THIRD INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN POLITICAL CONFERENCE
Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa 51250

A Public S e m d This Masazine
Bill cosby tells 8 The Advertiyng Council
whyRedCrossneeds
jwwtypeof blood.
job. Thats right, five percent
of the people give I00 percent
of the blood thats donated.
If youre between 17 and
66. and generally healthy. you
can help change all that. And
your one blood donation can
help up tofive people to live.
Call your Red Cross Blood
Center and make a donor
appointment soon. Its one way
you can help keep Red Cross
ready.. . to help others.
Every day of the week,
theres somebody who needs
your type of blood.
But the thing about blood
is: it doesnt keep very long.
Which means weve got to
keep the supply coming con-
stantly. Donors are needed
every day.
Sorry to say, there are
never enoiisqhdonors.
I n fact, five people out of
every 100 are doing the whole KeepRedCmss
- forriis of authority. He argues that
ready
for his answer: His cxamples are asce- but it wont get food and water into the
tics, untouchables, and victims of Nazi cities and garbage off the streets.
concentration camps. People can use I f i n Part I Moore has shown that
suffcring, hloorc argues, to escape their there are as many reasons for mankind
existence; they can accept suffering be- to conform as to revolt, in Part I 1 his
cause authority requires it, or because argument takes yet a more pessimistic
they are conditioned to it. Sometimes turn. Here he analyzes the German
the oppressed have so internalized thcir labor movement and concludes-
condition that they idealize and mimic against all those who currently idealize
their oppressors. Moore notes the hier- the revolutionary potential of the Ger-
archical orders that exist among the man worker movement-that it never
untouchables and among the Jewish could have made the revolution that
inmates who emulated the dress of their would have saved Germany from the
S.S. guards. First World War or, later, Nazism.
For Moorc, then, only the most opti- Organized labor was never as large as is
mistic assume that revolt will always commonly assumed, and was for the
arise i n opposition to intolerable condi- most part local, divided, and differen-
tions. Authority and tradition most tiated. Furthermore, the workers issues
often dictate against revolt. I t takes were not the intellectuals abstractions
insight and courage to resist oppression. of universal justice, freedom, and broth-
Moral autonomy, Moore argues, is a erhood but. rather, the more basic mat-
prerequisite for revolt, and moral auton- ters of fair play, decency, and respect.
omy is not plentiful i n modern industri- Before resuming the theoretical dis-
al society. Furthermore, empathy (love, cussion in Part 111, Mooreargues that in
sympathetic identification. or whatever Russia the workers movement alone
else one might call it) does not assure would not have caused the October
social justice. Under certain conditions Revolution. For the revolution to hap-
it can be very powerful, Moore writes, pen, daily life had to be utterly dis-
rupted, women fully engaged in revolt,
the war hopelessly lost yet still being
fought, and t h e army reduced to a state
of disintegration. (It is the state of the
army, of competing armies, Moore
writes, not the working class, that ...de-
termined the fate of twentieth century
revolutions .) Arguing against his
friend Herbert Marcuse, who insists on
labors past revolutionary potential,
Moore contends that the sense of injus-
tice can as easily fuel a revolt born out
of resentment as a revolution commit-
ted to progress. The Nazi revolution is,
for Moore, proof of that. Germans,
especially returning soldiers, believed
that their traditional values were being
undermined, their sacrifice insulted,
and their lives exploited by Jew and
capitalist alike. In this mixture of irra-
tionality and class resentment often
masquerading as a manliness that cul-
minates in murder Moore locales the
passions that brought Nazism to power.
Moore cannot at this point, even if he
wishes, escape the consequences of his
own pessimism: In the end the choice
between right and left is less meaning-
f u l than between more or less rariorral
nationalistic and separatist movements
have enjoyed many successes in the past
fifty-odd years, and that the number
and fervor of their supporters is proba-
bly much larger than that behind any
movement bascd on revolutionary work-
ing class consciousness. I n turn.
Moorc acknowledges how often revolu-
tionary leaders sacrifice the people to
Not Why do people
revolt? but Why do
people so often submit
to oppression and
degradation?
their causes and how the state, even
when seized by a positive group, has
laws and rituals that can ask for the
most extreme sacrifices. But the kings,
new and old, abide by no contract with
their subjects. They kill their own sub-
jects, each others subjects, and on occa-
sion, each other. And they all do it in
the name of a public interest, a wel-

fare about which there is no agreement
and which threatens to turn into a
nightmare. Moore knows that in mat-
ters of state, terror and progress (to
borrow the title of one of his works on
the Soviet Union) are not strangers.
He does not counsel surrender. He
would have us get on with the business
of being responsible, not just for our-
selves and our own fate, but for the
creation of the basic conditions that
make rational authority feasible and
turn predatory forms of authority into a
pathological rather than a normal state
of affairs. Yet, to this end, he sees no
path but a truthful and expanding con-
sciousness and empathy. This sort of
ex is tent ial utilitarianism, or coura-
geous pessimism, is where Moore
would have us begin reflecting on injus-
tice in our broken, divided, and warring
world.
Briefly Noted
Deliverance Day:
The Last Hours at
Dachau
by Michael Selzer
(J.B. Lippincott; 253 pp.; $10.95)
Konzentrationslager (KZ) Dachau was
liberated. by the American army on
April 29, 1945. In reconstructing this
event, Professor Selzer has accom-
plished a work of considerable historical
merit and moral impact. We are re-
minded that KZ Dachau was not de-
signed as a death factory: 31,951 are
listed as having died there, mostly from
disease, malnutrition, and mistreat-
ment; many thousands more, it is cer-
tain, died unrecorded. And the dying
continued long after the arrival of the
Americans, despite the efforts of mili-
tary physicians, who were stunned to
find themselves dealing with a variety of
syndromes previously encountered only
in medical textbooks. Dachau was a
comparatively lesser part of the total
scheme of human destruction in the
camps between 1933 and 1945, but
when it opened in March, 1933, it had
the distinction of being the first formal-
ly sanctioned concentration camp in
National Socialist Germany.
Dachau, as Selzer tells us. had a het-
erogeneous population, and this is one
CONTRIBUTORS
Hux teaches English at York
SAMUEL
College (CUNY).
SUDHIR SENis author of A Richer
Harvest (1974), Reaping the Green
Revolution ( 1976), and Turning the
Tide ( 1978).
RICHARD J. MOUWis Professor of Phi-
losophy at Calvin College, Michigan.
MARTINGREENis Professor of English
at Tufts University. His latest book is
Transatlantic Pat terns.
MARTHABAYLES, a novelist, teaches
English composition at Fordham Uni-
versity, New York.
JOSEPHAMATO teaches history at
Southwest State University, Minneso-
ta.
WARRENTHOMFSON(Briefly Noted)
teaches philosophy at Lebanon Valley
College, Pennsylvania.
reason he chose to study this particular
camp. Only near the end of the war did
it come to have large numbers of Jewish
inmates, underscoring Selzers point
that the camps, as such, were not a
distinctively Jewish tragedy. Jehovahs
Witnesses, gypsies, Christian clergy-
men, captured Resistance fighters, ordi-
nary German citizens, and even mem-
bers of the Wehrmacht itself-in short,
virtually anyone who happened to get in
the way of Hitlers Cleichschalrung was
a candidate for Dachau. Nevertheless,
Dachau marks the beginning of the
Holocaust, of the Final Solution to the
Jewish Question. Selzers story forces
us to consider that absolutely nothing
was done from the outside to help these
people, nor those at worse places, even
when Allied military supremacy was
established beyond all question and
when British and American assistance
to the underground in various German-
occupied countries was both plentiful
and commonplace. Not a gesture. Not
even a sign that we knew what was
happening to them-and we did know,
in detail, well before the first camp was
overrun.
Selzer relates the fate of the Russian
prisoners of war at Dachau. At the
liberation 3,000 were a l i v e 4 u r i n g the
war they were commonly used as live
targets at the S.S. rifle range-and they
were eventually sent back to the Soviet
Union, many of them unwillingly, for
Stalin did not take kindly to troops who
laid down their weapons instead of their
55
lives. Some of the liberating American
troops lost control when they discovered
a freight train at t h e camp containing
nothing but corpses: They massacred
122 S.S. guards who had just surren-
dered. (This train had stood at Dachau,
completely unattended, for several
weeks; the cars contained the bodies of
2,310 people who had been shipped
from other camps.)
Selzer says he conflated a number
of the individual events that were re-
lated to him. That may be a legitimate,
even. a necessary, method. But re-
creations of this sort create an uneasi-
ness about what might have been
skewed or slighted; the reader is at the
mercy of the writers perception of what
is and is not important. Nonetheless,
Selzers narrative is convincing and his
book is a worthwhile addition to the
massive and growing body of literature
on the events of this epoch.
-Warren Thompson
Everyone
by Frederick Franck
(Doubleday; 187 pp.; $12.50)
I n recent years Frederick Franck h s
produced a number of remarkable
books in which his drawings accompady
his hand-written text. Everyone. which
now joins their company, is Franck,s
contemporary rendering of the fif-
teenth-century classic Everyman (t e
text of which is appended). In notes
i
following his rendition Franck explaih
I
how and why Everyman came to m q n
so much to him and also how, in Japan,
he came upon a study presenting evi-
dence that Everyman has roots in a
Buddhist parable preceding the birth of
Christ. This confirmed his own feeling
that the play is built on a myth of far-
reaching and powerful meanings.
Everyman is, of course, the story of a
man who, faced with Death, is deserted
by his long-time comrades-Fellowship
and Jollity, Strength, Pleasure, Goods,
etc., until he is left with only Good
Deeds to plead his case before God. In
transmuting this play to our own times,
Franck has taken some dazzling and
profound liberties. The result is a very
forceful play that has been performed
successfully in many different settings.
It can be read aloud with a few friends
or even by oneself. Highly recom-
mended.
 Agenda for Theology
I W 0 RL D V I E W SYMPOSIA by Thomas C. Oden
(Harper 8c Row; xiii 4- 176 pp.; S7.95)
~ in cooperation with The Asia Society
At this very moment, one may safely
For years Worldviewand The Asia Society have been collaborating in bringing
together essays, most of which have been subjected to criticism and analysis in assume, an article is being writtcn to
conferences in t h e Pacific. And most of which have appeared in Worldview. The announce the arrival of %eo-conserva-
result is a remarkable series of Worldviewsired publications that add up to a tism in Christian and Jewish theology.
small but growing library of contemporary commentary on this region of the Odens book would have to be men-
1 world-increasingly important in the foreign policy of the U.S. tioned, or maybe the book is an ex-
, tended version of the article. I n any
DAY AFTER TOMORROW IN THE PACIFIC REGION, 1976 case, Oden is making his confession
Incisive and insightful essays on the countries of the Pacific. Most that, after riding almost every religious
of the authors are not only experts on but are experts from the
Pacific Region. For example, Soedjatmoko, who writes on A Third fad of the last decade and more, his
World View of Nationalism and Internationalism, is a celebrated seminary students have forced him to
Indonesian philosopher who served for years as Ambassador to the the discovery of orthodoxy. The whole
U S....Toru Yano, Professor of Political Science at Kyoto University, book is an effort to rehabilitate the word
writes about how countries of Southeast Asia view Japan-and vice orrhodoxy. His agenda, he wants to
versa ....Saburo Okita, for years President of the Japanese Research make clear, is not the revival of the
Center and economic policy advisor t o his government, here writes
optimistically about the challenges of Asian development ....Other neo-orthodoxy associated with wor-
essays by authorities such as Edwin 0. Reischauer, Ross Terrill, thies such as Reinhold Niebuhr but,
Hongkoo Lee, Nicholas Ludlow, and Robert W.Barnett round out rather, the development of a post-mod-
the issue. ern classical Christian position. Because
1977 it is post-modern, says Oden, neither
Asia: An Overview, by Derek Davies....As South Confronts should it be confused with fundamental-
North, by Goh Keng Swee....Southeast Asia Seen From Japan, by ism, which is premodern. The book is
Toru Yano ....Japan Seen From Southeast Asia, by Fumio Mat- part of a major shift in the religious
suo....China on Its Way to Becoming Japan, via Sweden, by climate, in continuity with the much
Norman Macrae ....The Multinational as Symbol, by Raymond discussed Hartford Appeal of 1975. It is
Vernon ....China and the World: Self-Reliance or Interdepen- not clear that the one point he makes
dence? by Ross Terrill ....I The Politics of Predominance in the
Pacific Region, by Alan Renouf ....Regional Cooperation in the requires 176 pages, but it is an impor-
Asian Pacific, by Saburo Okita ....I Two Dimensions of Legitimacy tant point, so one is not inclined to quib-
as Power Resource, by.Hongkoo Lee. ble over a little padding.
1978
Bright Prospects for Southeast Asia, by Derek Davies....U.S.
Energy Programs and Policies, by Robert R. Nathan ....Japanese
Reaction t o Carters Energy Policy, by Yukio Matsuyama ....I From
Economic Market t o Political Market, by Hongkoo Lee....Energy.
Investment. Hua., by Norman Macrae ....The China of Hua Kuo- Rise U p and Walk
feng, by Stephen FitzGerald ....China, the US.,and Asia: A Ques- by Abel T. Muzorewa
tioning View From Tokyo, by Fumio Matsuo ....Human Rights in (Abington; 289 pp.; $9.95)
China, by Robert W.Barnett ....I Tension Management in the Asia-
Pacific Region, by Soedjatmoko ....Rich and Poor Nations, by
Saburo .Okita....ASEAN in a Changing World, by Alejandro A moving and persuasive autobiography
Melchor ....Asian Economic Developments and Prospects, by Tun by the bishop who dared to join in the
T h i n ....T h e Growing S t r e n g t h of Vietnam, by Maurice interim government of Rhodesia in the
Strong....I The US.: View From Thailand, by Thanat Khoman. hope that it would lead to the indepen-
Each of these volumes-and the forthcoming issue for 1979-k fdof wit, dence of Zimbabwe. One is compelled
wisdom,and idormation. by the good sense, courage, and con-
science of a man thoroughly committed
TO: WORLDVIEW single issue $2.00 (plus 50c postage 8r handling) to liberal democratic values. Yet, as this
170 E. 64th Streel is written, it seems that the undermin-
New York, N.V. 10021 series of three $5.00 (plus $1 postage 8 handling) ing of the interim government, for
0 Please send me a copy of the ___ (indicate year) issue of DAY AFTER TOMORROW which American policy is largely re-
Jj Please send me the entire DAY AFTER TOMORROW series sponsible, is leading to intertribal con-
flict that will force Muzorewa and oth-
My check in the amount of $- is enclosed. ers toward a Zimbabwe that bears little
resemblance to the vision of indepen-
dence portrayed in this book. One
ADDRESS therefore reads the book with some
CITY STATE ZIP sadness, knowing that this future de-
Please make checks payable to WORLDVIEW served a far better chance than it has
been given.
 n
roreign
0
Eugene Carson Blake:
Prophet With Portfolio
by R. Douglas Brackenridge
(Seabury; 239 pp.; $12.95)

A thoroughly uncritical admiration of

the man and of the movements of which
he was an important part. Blake has
been very much in the center of what
used to be called mainline Protestant-
PoliEy
tYMoralitv
ism. In view of the present disarray of
the World and National Councils of
Churches, this book is a poignant re-
minder of an 6clesiastical universe that
was once taken very seriously indeed. I t
reinforces the impression that for all his
energy, administrative ability, and at-
Framework for a Moral Audit
tractive personal qualities, Blake pre-
sided over the not so graceful decline of Theodore M. Hesburgh
institutions he obviously wanted to Louis J. Halle
strengthen. He represents a generation
of ecumenical leadership that has been
left reeling from the collision between Commentary: John C. Bennett, George F. Kennan,
Christian sincerity and power realities John P. Armstrong, Philip C. Jessup,
that are stubbornly resistant to moral
improvement.
:
E. Raymond Platig
Preface an Concluding Remarks:
;kenneth W. Thompson
T h e Nature of Mass Poverty
by John Kenneth Galbraith
(Harvard University Press; 150 pp.;
$8.95)

A handful of gracefully reworked lec-

tures proposes that the answer to mass
I
Two acknowledged aut orities, Father Theodore
Hesburgh of Note Dame an, Professor Louis Halle of
Geneva, approach the issue of orality in foreign policy
from different viewpoints. Their differing views are then
examined by leaders from different backgrounds
poverty is an accommodation that -diplomats, professional ethicists, and public
breaks the equilibrium of poverty.
servants. The result is a searching examination of
Actually, Galbraith is somewhat more
modest than that, acknowledging that one of the perennial and profound issues of political life.
his idea of accommodation may be
one of a set of answers. Accommodation
basically means the movement from ag-
ricultural to industrial work, from rural
to urban living. Key to this is migration,
both within and among nations. Gal-
braith views migration historically and
in its global dimensions and applies its
lessons to support a very positive posi-
tion toward illegal immigrants in this 170 E. 64th Street
country, notably those from Mexico. New York, N.Y. 10021
There are some curious mistakes, such Please send me -copy[ies] of FOREIGN POLICY 8 MORALITY @ $2.00
as his claim that the U.S. spends nearly per copy (plus 50C handling and postage).
Xi 120 billion annually to police its bor- My check in the amount of $ enclosed.
ders, and more conventional mistakes,
such as the assumption throughout that
China is way ahead of India in terms of Name
8

economic development. There is also a

curious, for Galbraith, move away from Address
socialist solutions. Indeed, the bur-
den of his argument is against varieties city State -zip
of socialism that turn out to be disas- Please make checks payable to CRlA
trous when they attempt the impossi-
ble, namely, to make people richer by
redistributing their poverty. The little
book is, in sum, a slight but humane and
readable argument for a moderately
hopeful approach to development that
takes more seriously than is usually the
case such elementary forces as the de-
sire of people to migrate toward what
they perceive as opportunity.
Scholars, Dollars and
Bureaucrats
by Chester.2. Finn,Jr.
(Brookings Institution; 2 3 8 pp.;
$ 1 1.95/4.95)
An eminently intelligent analysis of the
role of the federal government in higher
education. Currently 14 billion federal
dollars a year go, directly and indirectly,
to approximately three thousand col-
leges and universities. Finn underscores
that there is a hodgepodge of bits and
pieces of disconnected decisions rather
than one clear policy, but he thinks that
is not so bad. The higher education
scene itself is relatively, and often cre-
atively, anarchic. His proposals for re-
form are modest, and, despite an almost
certain quantitative decline in higher
education during the next decade, his
prognosis offers good reasons for being
hopeful.
God and the Astronomers
by Robert Jastrow
(Norton; 136 pp.; $7.95)
Those of us on the humanistic side of
what C.P. Snow described as thz two
cultures are enormously indebted to
Robert Jastrow, the astronomer who
heads NASAs Goddard Institute and
who writes with a singular elegance
about the truly elegant discoveries of a
science that is quite beyond most of us.
This little book is about the Big Bang
theory of how everything got started, a
theory that is more elegantly, and accu-
rately, described as the Beginning, or, if
you will, the Creation. With a sense of
amused curiosity Jastrow demonstrates
how such eminent scientists as Einstein
resisted the evidence as long as they
could because it implied conclusions
unamenable to scientistic religion. Nor-
ton is asking a big price for a book very
slight in size (and even that is achieved
by excessive padding with marginally
relevant photographs), but it is by no
means slight in its power to inform and
provoke.
The Power of Their Glory:
Americas Ruling Class,
the Episcopalians
by Kit and Frederica
Konolige
(Wyden; 408 pp.; $12.95)
Publishers Weekly compares it with
Birminghams Our Crowd; the publish-
ers and, one suspects, the authors, think
this is a compliment. It is a very big
book with some interesting pictures and
unoriginal thoughts about the very rich,
very successful, very powerful, very
stylish, and frequently very snobbish
Clite of the Episcopal Church. To be
more precise, not the tlite of the Episco-
pal Church, but the elite of the country
who happen to be Episcopalian. Such
unseemly gawking at the rich no doubt
confirms them in their view that they
are the betters of people like the Kono-
liges and those for whom their book is
written.
The Ethics of Homicide
by Philip E. Devine
(Cornell University Press; 248 pp.;
$1 2.95)
Devine teaches philosophy at Rensse-
laer Polytechnic Institute and here of-
fers an admirably reasoned argument
for the presumption against killing.
Relatively few citizens seem to be aware
that our society is at this moment
engaged in life-and-death decisions
about the definition of the human exis-
tence for which we accept societal re-
sponsibility. The specific issues have to
do with abortion, euthanasia, suicide,
war, murder, and capital punishment,
and the laws appropriate to each. De-
vine does not operate from a partisan
religious base-indeed he makes quite a
point of that-but he is keenly alert to
the difficulties in separating ethical
judgment from religious conviction.
The author argues convincingly that,
contra the Supreme Court decision of
1973, the fetus must be viewed as a
person and is entitled to legal protec-
tion. No intellectually serious person
engaged in the abortion debate can
afford to ignore Devines incisive course
of argument. Almost every subject that
has ever come up under the category of
homicide is treated by Devine, and,
whether or not one is led to agreement
(Devine is against capital punishment,
not a vegetarian, not a pure pacifist,
etc.), the reader will be forced to
acknowledge his debt to a thinker who
has, as much as is humanly possible,
taken every existent and conceivable
argument into account. Altogether, this
is a difficult but highly important
work.
Night Journey
by John Stoessinger
(Playboy Press; 216 pp.; $9.95)
John Stoessinger had earned a reputa-
tion as a lecturer, teacher, and scholar
on international affairs, when he was
indicted for fraud and conspiracy. He
had used his high position at the U.N.
to recommend to representatives of var-
ious countries that needed large loans a
woman from whom he had received
favors but for whose financial abilities
he had no evidence. On the basis of his
recommendations she bilked a number
of people and institutions. My guilty
plea fell on the same day as the publica-
tion of my book on Henry Kissinger-
from whom he subsequently received a
pleasant note.
To put these actions in focus Mr.
Stoessinger has written an apologia that
starts in Vienna-when he discovered as
a young boy what it meant to be a Jew
in a Nazi-occupied Europe. It was a
long and adventurous journey through
different countries and difficult situa-
tions that brought him to his position of
relative eminence. In the hands of a
skilled writer and a truly reflective per-
son this material could have been the
basis for a moving and illuminating self-
investigation. Alas, Stoessingers per-
sonal trials and suffering have brought
him neither vision nor a writing style
that rises above the banal and tasteless.
Additional proof that it is not given to
everyone to be a St. Augustine. The one
interesting question this book poses is
whether someone so inept in his pursuit
of power and influence is properly able

to analyze and assess political leaders
who have successfully attained great
power and influence. This question does
not imply its own answer.
Oil Politics in the 1980s:
Patterns of International
Cooperation
by Pystein Noretig
(McGraw-Hill; 17 I pp.; $5.95 [paper])
The author is an economist based in
Oslo, and the book is another in the
1980s Project of the Council on For-
eign Relations. The argument is that
both West European (OECD) countries
and the oil producers are hurting badly
and will hurt worse because of instabili-
t y in the international oil market. No-
reng proposes that OECD and OPEC
negotiate a comprehensive agreement as
a basis for stable and mutual economic
growth. I t is a constructive and persua-
sive statement, and although it now
seems somewhat out of touch with polit-
ical realities, it could suggest a blue-
print for a new arrangement beyond
present uncertainties and confronta-
tions.
On Becoming American:
A Celebration of What It
Means and How I t Feels
by Ted Morgaii
(Houghton Mifflin; 336 pp.; $10.95)
Ted Morgan used to be Sanche de
Gramont, scion of a noble French fami-
ly. Although a successful journalist un-
der his former name and a man not
indifferent to his entree to the elegance
of Europe, he finally resolved a life-long
love afi-air with the United States by
becoming Ted Morgan, American Citi-
zen. The book is indeed a celebration of
being American and has. understanda-
bly, been welcomed by many Americans
who had forgotten ihe wonder of it all.
Morgans politics are rather eclectic,
but his appreciation of the kookiness
and majesty of the American social
experiment ties everything together in a
theme of winsome amazement. At one
point in the writing of the book he woke
up with the nightmare that the whole
thing was just going to be a discon-
nected jumble of bits and pieces of
Americana. The nightmare was not en-
tirely unjustified, but his persistence
and good humor finally offset the read-
ers impatience. It is worth waiting for
the really incisive moments. For exam-
ple: This country is a success, in the
same way that a Broadway show is a
success. People are lined up at the box
office for tickets of admission. In
truth, his extensive remarks on the
importance of immigration to America
are pointedly relevant to public policy
decisions that Americans will have to
make in the years immediately ahead.
The Middle East in the
Coming Decade: From
Wellhead to Well-Being?
by Johtt Waterbury
atid Ragaei El Mallakh
(McGraw-Hill; 219 pp.; $5.95)
One in a series of studies sponsored by
the Council on Foreign Relations, the
books argument is essentially a positive
answer to the question posed in the
subtitle. Subsequent events in Iran and
elsewhere may throw into doubt the
authors rather optimistic estimate of
patterns of stability in the region, but
they are no doubt on solid ground when
they propose that thinking about
North-South economic relations must
take into account more fully the unique
role that will be played by regional
interests in the Middle East.
Correspondence ( f r o i ~p~. 2)
miss it. In this situation it is curious to !
find Weir speaking of India. His excusc ;
for not granting revolutionary status to
I
Indias self-liberation from British rule
is that Gandhi would have been imme-
diately imprisoned or killed by a totali-
tarian government. Since the British did
imprison Gandhi, it is difficult to make action is uncertain and violent action
sense of this statement.
Weir is also lacking support among
his sources. According to T.S. Kuhn, a
scientific revolution occurs when, in a
certain area of study, research becomes
informed by a new paradigm, incompat-
ible with previous orthodoxy. The revo-
lutionary nature of this change is a
consequence of the incommensurability
of the conflicting ideas (The Striicfitre
of Scienti/c Rerolirtions. 1970).
59
Hannah Arendt, while saying that
revolutions are violent, finds that their
distinguishing feature is the fundamen-
tal novelty of the change i n government
that they institute (On Revolution.
1977, p. 35; included is the passage
quoted by Weir).
I n a later book (On Violerice. 1970)
she softens the insistence on violence
considerably.**
Isaac Krammick. in thc paragraph
quoted by Weir, says: Several prob-
lems arise, however, from the character-
ization of revolution as a violent mode
of political change. I t denies the possi-
bility of non-violent revolution while at
the same time overlooking the existencc
of non-revolutionary violence. Must
sudden and profound change of a non-
violent nature ...be denied the status of
revolution? (Reflections on Revolu-
tion, i n Hisforji arid Theory, Summer,
1972).
He, too, concludes that revolution is
best characterized by the profundity of
the change it brings, not by the method
of the bringing (Revolution, then, is a
flagrant and abrupt change in the fun-
damental conditions of legality.).
Weir is also at odds with the thinking
of many modern revolutionaries. I n a
country such as the United States,
founded, as Susan Sontag says, on a
genocide (Styles of Radical Will,
1969). and with a history so full of
violence it scarcely fits in two hundrcd
years, the practice of nonviolence may
be the most revolutionary idea one
could have.
If Weir wishes to discuss armed
insurrection, thats fine. But there is no
need to adjust revolution to his Procrus-
tean definition.
Rory Sutton
Irliaca. N . Y.
*Weir speaks of revolution in China. so
evidently twenty-four years is suffi-
ciently rapid.
**In 011Violericc Arcndt argues that all
particularly so. There is always the pos-
sibility that the exercise of violence in
the service of distant ends will result
simply i n the institutionalization of vio-
lence as normal social relations: Vio-
lence like all action changes the world,
but the most probable change is to a
more violent world (p. 80).
Violence, then, insofar as i t can be
justified at all. is justifiablc only in
pursuit of very short-term goals: And
indeed, violence, contrary to what its
prophets try to tell us, is more the weap-
on of reform than revolution (p. 79).